Inviting everyone to check out and consider volunteering creative talent for strike_support to benefit writers and non-union creative techs out of work due to the WGA strike. How it works is that people offer to make icons or sketches or write short fiction or poetry as a gift for someone in exchange for that person's donating to a fund to provide emergency help with rent, food, healthcare, etc for unemployed workers in the television industry.

I know many of you are incredibly talented with writing, poetry, music, graphic design, etc - and it's a good cause. Many people in the writing industry are not wealthy - they're 'starving artists' looking for a chance to survive while following their dream and working one or more dayjobs between gigs. And this is a creative, democratic, (discordian!) response to the whole situation.

Here's the community's information: Everyone knows that the writers are out of jobs because they're on strike. It's what being on strike means, and it's a risk they decided to take.

But hundreds of other people are also out of jobs: actors, technicians, staff, crew. These people had no say in whether the writers went on strike or not. They didn't choose to lose their jobs.

Fans have done a lot to support the strike, so that it ends as quickly as possible. But that end is still far out of sight.

But there's a way that you can help now the people who need help the most. strike_support is a general fandom community dedicated to helping those affected by the strike, who don't have their union's funds to fall back on. We're doing this through two charities: The Actors' Fund, based in NYC, and The Motion Picture & Television Fund, based in LA. If you know another charity that supports "below the line" people, please contact esotaria

Hello, my name is Dillon Clark; I have been monitoring you community and I see that it is very much based on foreign policy and not so much domestic problems. Is any body familiar with the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill which through a series of fees and ambigueties is ruining the lives of the nations seniors on low and fixed incomes. Writen by a right wing, ultra conservitive congress the bill was drafted to feed the pharmisuetical companies by giving them extreeme power over the price of perscription drugs. After tomorrow when congress shifts back to the left, we have the chance to change the bill for the better. I know there are a couple of Senators who plan to fix the problems in the bill, does anyone know who they are.

Sara Rich is an activist and a tireless advocate for her daughter, Army Specialist Suzanne Swift, who is awaiting a court-martial for refusing to return to Iraq under the command of a sergeant who raped her. Today Sara Rich travels around the U.S., speaking out against the war and military sexual violence. Fight Back! interviewed Sara Rich on Oct. 28.

Fight Back!: How is Suzanne? How is your daughter’s case going?

Sarah Rich: Not good. Suzanne is being court-martialed and her trial is set for Jan. 7. I think the military is trying to make an example of her. They have set up a system that does not work for victims of sexual violence in the military. The victim advocates that the military assigns are not adequately trained.

Women who speak out about their experiences are treated like trash and humiliated by their officers and fellow soldiers. One girl had to have bodyguards assigned to her because she was receiving death threats from other soldiers in her unit. I know of a girl in Germany who was abused and she tried to commit suicide. Eventually the Red Cross, who she had been in contact with, told her family to stop trying to advocate on her behalf; the organization was afraid of being charged for "destroying government property." That's what you are when you're enlisted - government property.

Fight Back!: How did the government respond to your daughter's case?

Sarah Rich: It took them about four months to decide what to do with Suzanne. The response we've received has been dismissive and nonexistent.

When Suzanne reported the abuse she had experienced at the hands of the sergeants she served under, the military conducted a three-day investigation. In this investigation neither of the major perpetrators were interviewed. Suzanne was interviewed for an hour. The investigators told her that they "weren't interested in any details." The officer responsible for the investigation was not even a member of CID - he was just a random colonel assigned to her case. When the colonel submitted his findings his superior rejected them, saying that there wasn't enough information.

Three different sergeants had sexually harassed and abused Suzanne. The military investigation claimed that only the offenses committed by the third sergeant could be substantiated and said that Suzanne had failed to report the earlier abuses. This is untrue, and is even contradicted by the army's own investigation, which documented reports which Suzanne made of her abuse while serving in Iraq.

The army gave Suzanne a psychological evaluation. They said that she had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but claimed she didn't have enough to be diagnosed with the condition. So, they decided to charge her with going AWOL when she refused to return to Iraq under the control of her abusers.

Sergeant Lester, one of the sergeants who harassed Suzanne, told the investigators that Suzanne was lazy, and that "he occasionally had to 'micromanage' her." The Equal Opportunity officer said that she was promiscuous and "had a reputation" among the soldiers. This is totally typical of the language sexual abusers use to talk about their victims. Never mind the major in her division - who said Suzanne was a good soldier who performed admirably in combat - or that her team leader that commended her honesty to the investigators. The military took the words of her abusers over those of higher-ranking officers who had served with her.

Despite all of the flaws in the way this investigation was put together, the military is still moving forward to prosecute its case. Honestly, they're trying to break us down - emotionally and financially. They're trying to beat us down, but it's not going to happen.

Fight Back!: In your writing you don't limit your criticism to the way sexual abuse is handled within the military - you are also often critical of the war itself. What are your thoughts on the American invasion and occupation of Iraq?

Sarah Rich: I have always opposed the war in Iraq. We’re not the world police. Our government needs to stop trying to control the rest of the world. Right now we're seen as international terrorists because of what's going on in Iraq. Millions of Americans want peace. A majority of Americans want peace, but the U.S. government is in the habit of demanding obedience instead of listening to the people who are supposed to be the source of its authority.

We need to bring our troops home now. We need to fund the Veterans Administration so that when they come home they'll be take care of. We need to fund the schools and stop using our children as human sacrifices for oil. I have a 12-year-old son. If we don't change things he could be drafted in six years.

Fight Back!: Would you encourage other active-duty personnel in the military to resist deployment to Iraq today?

Sarah Rich: Yes. I absolutely would. I support all war resisters 100%. We have more and more resisters in the military. There is a movement in the army now that is asking congress for redress and demanding to be sent home. There is no 'noble cause' in this war. People are being sacrificed for the sake of a few profiteers.

_____________________________________________________Fight Back News Service | www.fightbacknews.org

who are all of my russian dolls? i know the first one is gorbachev, and i think the second smallest one is stalin, and the smallest is lenin. but i have no idea who the other ones are! if anyone can help me out, that'd be great. thanks!

The Communist Youth Union (KSM) in the Czech Republic was officially dissolved by the authorities on 12th October 2006.

On 16th October 2006 the KSM received a letter from the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic informing us that the KSM had finally been dissolved. It happened in spite of a large campaign against the danger of banning the organisation of young communists in the Czech Republic.

Thousands of citizens of the Czech Republic signed a petition against the campaign of the Interior Ministry to make the KSM illegal. The protests against the banning of the KSM were supported, for example, by the organisation of former antifascist fighters, student organisations, political parties and civic associations.

The campaign received massive support abroad. Hundreds of significant youth and student organisations, trade unions and political parties, together with thousands of people protested at the Ministry of Interior and embassies of the Czech Republic in their countries.

Solidarity with the KSM was expressed by a large number of MPs, famous intellectuals and personalities like Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, Zapatista leader Marcos and singer Bono Vox from U2.

Demonstrations in support of the KSM were organised in front of embassies of the Czech Republic in many countries. The World Federation of Democratic Youth initiated an International day of solidarity with the KSM on 27th February 2006.

The Ministry of Interior originally impugned the status of the KSM as a civic association under pretext that the goals of KSM’s activity interfered with an area restricted to activities of political parties.

The Interior Ministry further stated that behaviour of the KSM was illegal because it was based on the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin and that it proclaimed the necessity of socialist revolution.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Interior did not use any of those arguments for the dissolution of the KSM. The only reason that has led officially to the dissolution of the KSM is that the KSM reflects the necessity of replacing private ownership of means of production with collective ownership in its programme.

The KSM, in spite of its official dissolution by the state power, is going to carry on the struggle for the rights of majority of young people – students, young workers and unemployed – and for socialism!

The KSM is going to challenge the decision of the Ministry of Interior in court.

The banning of the KSM was committed in the atmosphere of a militant anticommunist witch-hunt, various anticommunist campaigns and attacks and new calls for the criminalisation of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM).

The decision of the Ministry of Interior was taken only a week before local and Senate elections in which the KSCM participates.

It is necessary to stand up internationally against this illegalisation and criminalisation of the communist movement in the Czech Republic.

We ask you therefore to express your solidarity with the KSM and to protest against this unprecedented move of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic at the embassy of the Czech Republic in your country.

With your international support it is possible and it is vital to defeat all the anticommunist and antidemocratic attacks!

IN 1950 US statesman John Foster Dulles visited US troops in the south of Korea to approve of plans to invade the fledgling Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He boasted this would take only one day, after which the US would be poised to attack the equally young People’s Republic of China. He and the US military top brass talked of breakfast in Kaesong and supper at the Chinese border.

Korea had been left divided after the Second World War and the defeat of Japanese imperialism which had occupied the peninsula since 1910. The north had been liberated by the Korean people, led by Comrade Kim Il Sung and supported by the Soviet Red Army, while US forces occupied the south. This was meant to be a temporary arrangement.

The Americans attacked the DPRK but failed to defeat it. The invasion that was supposed to be over in a day lasted for three years before the US forces were fought to a standstill. What the Koreans lacked in weapons and technology they made up for in sheer courage and commitment to defend their homeland.

The war ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, signed between the DPRK and the United States. This has left the country divided by the continuing American occupation. The terms of the armistice were that there should be a peace conference established within three months to negotiate the terms of a peaceful reunification for Korea. The Americans reneged on this commitment and instead built a huge wall across Korea.

Since then the people of southern Korea have had to put up with US military occupation and puppet governments hostile to the DPRK, while the people of the DPRK have had to live under the constant threat of attack, under anti-communist hostility and under trade and economic embargoes. The people of the DPRK never asked to be isolated – the Americans forced it upon them.

Not surprisingly they have always paid great attention to their defences. The Clinton government in Washington brought a little thawing in the hostility. Fears that the DPRK would develop its own nuclear weapons prompted a pledge by the American to provide nuclear power generators in return for the DPRK dropping its nuclear programme.

But that agreement was torn up by George W Bush, who declared that the DPRK was one of four countries – along with Iraq, Iran and Syria – he dubbed the “axis of evil”, making threats of attack on all of them.

The Saddam Hussein government in Iraq complied with US and United Nations demands to get rid of all “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs), hoping this would avert an invasion. It did the opposite. Once Iraq had effectively disarmed itself the US, backed by Britain, invaded, claiming that Iraq still had WMDs in spite of UN inspectors’ reports to the contrary. The lesson is clear: disarm and face invasion. The DPRK, Iran and Syria have noted it well.

Now the DPRK has proudly produced its own nuclear weapons programme. This has been roundly condemned in all the western imperialist media and by Tony Blair – who just a few weeks ago decided to renew Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system without any parliamentary debate.

Many on the Left who should know better have also taken up the imperialists’ cries of horror and outrage. But in the Third World and other countries threatened by imperialism, there is joy and solidarity that the tiny DPRK is standing firm against US bullying and defying the warmongers.

The people of the DPRK are peaceful people. They have no imperialist traditions or ambitions. They do not seek to impose anything on anyone. They just want to secure the socialist society that they are building against invasion and destruction. They are entitled to our support and solidarity.

The imperialists are rattling their sabres but they are now a lot less likely to actually attack the DPRK than they were a week ago.

This club is very cool. I personally don't get why more people aren't socialist. Some of history's greatest social thinkers have publicly supported democratic socialism. Orwell, for instance. That alone should convert anyone to our end of the spectrum. My two cents :)

PLEASE!! Fill this out and send it to your senator(s) NOW! Send it everyonr you know who hates this administration and every form of wome's oppression! Send it to any list serves who has members who will send it and pass it along to others. Thanx.

I would like to invite everyone to the Volunteer Meeting for the 2006 A
World Beyond Capitalism Conference,An Annual International Multiracial
Alliance Building Peace Conference. Time and Date: 7pm-9pm, Wednesday, October
19th, 7-9 PM, 2005, Location: Laughing Horse Bookstore, 3652 SE Division St.
Portland, OR 97202. No charge. Free, light vegan refreshments. Detailed
driving directions with maps (for local or out of state origins) are found on
the website. The conference greatly welcomes the help of not only face-to-face
volunteers but also volunteers who can only help from out-of-state, or out of
country who work-from-home with or without the internet. Workshop proposals
will also be accepted. More details on today's entry of my journal. Thank you,...

Love for the people.

-n.c.

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine is so odious that
you cannot even tacitly participate, You’ve got to place your bodies on
the gears, the wheels, all the mechanism. And you’ve got to indicate to
those who own it and those who run it, that unless you are free, the
machine will be prevented from working at all." - "Unless You Are Free"
Song Lyrics by Utah Phillips/Ani DiFranco [Moderator: If you would like me to link back to your
community in the user info of our community, please comment on this post.]

Hello. My name is Q. Allen and I am in NC Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST). I will be interning with NYC Workers World Party this summer. If any of you are in the tri-state area (mainly NYC) and want to do something crazy + radical, you should let me know. I'm down for anything...marches, teach-ins, protests, direct action...if there are any ideas out there then let me know; i would love to work with other youth that are as passionate about Socialist revolution as i am. Together we can show the grown folks that the youth are ready to revolt right alongside them!

I just joined this community, a member of the Communist Party USA. Just joining the Communist Party, I now realize what a reactionary and "tool of the elite" kind of party it is. Because of that, I started a group within the party called "The Red Faction" (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpusaredfaction) to try to change it, but Im not getting a massive amount of people to join. I figure Ill probably eventually leave and join the Workers World Party. Could you all just answer a few things for me?

*Is it Marxist-Leninist/Stalinist/Maoist, what specifically is it? Just wondering because I oppose Stalin.*How do I go about joining?*If I joined, what could I do to further participate in the organization, locally?

Chapter 1"Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt.Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal"